In a meeting at the Union League Club of New York in March 1878, Robert B. Roosevelt suggested that the "deplorable health of women was owing to a want of proper medical advice.
Mountains of headgear, thin-soled shoes, glove-fitting and shape-destroying corsets no doubt have considerable influence in producing general ill-health among women; but he was persuaded that the lack of medical adviser of their own sex had been the leading cause."
Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi spoke at the same meeting, and stated that the aim of the association was to put "the medical education of women on an equality with that of male students.
"[4] The Alumnae Association was formed in 1870, and included both graduates of the Medical College and other female physicians in the New York City area.
WMA-NYC was chartered by New York State in 1909 and became branch #14 of the American Medical Women's Association in 1933.